Posts by Hebe
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Access: One in Four – NZ Disability Survey, in reply to Sacha,
I’m barely containing my fury at the situation
That’s what it is like for many people. And you can’t un-realise.
Rrrrrr. That’s the response my whole family has had. Not that we’re trouble-makers in any way. Oh no ;-)
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Access: One in Four – NZ Disability Survey, in reply to Sacha,
Imagine if the system was about serving needs rather than rationing access. It distorts the experience so much, and it wastefully affects the self-belief of disabled people and our families.
The rationing of access is exactly the problem: it's so wrong, and discriminatory. It's gob-smacking for me as newcomer to the disability area.
Every day I contrast the woeful response to my teenager's difficulties over the last 10 years with the comprehensive in-the-community wraparound services provided to very elderly family members. Christchurch lost so many elder care beds in the earthquakes that community care has been ramped up and is now being lauded as an example to the world.
Why not for people with disabilities?
I'm barely containing my fury at the situation, having to delete and rewrite multiple times to remove the excesses!
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Feed: A scientist researches restaurants, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
so you can break bread
forgivingly with those
who press past against you…I had three hours sleep last night and this still made me laugh. I shall never again hear the Lord’s Prayer without a grin.
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Re the hearing-disabled numbers, I expect this number will rocket in a few years due to revised definitions and wider provision of Auditory Processing Disorder testing, which is at present uneven, discriminatory and with practically zero funding.
APD is estimated in a report out this year to affect as many as 30 percent of Maori and Pasifika people and around 10 per cent or more of other ethnic groups.
Provision of testing and equipment are the responsibility of District Health Boards for 0-5 yr olds and over 18s; and the Ministry of Education for 6-18s.
However, only a few DHBs fulfil their obligations, and then with waiting lists. If your DHB doesn’t test (not in Canterbury), expect to pay $400 minimum for APD tests. Then you might be able to get the equipment.
For the 6 to 18 yr olds, Education only provides testing and equipment under strict criteria, where it’s classified as a learning disability, not a hearing disability, and other learning disabilities must be present. Even then the numbers are severely limited to fewer than 100 per year total. Of the few diagnosed with APD, most are diagnosed mid-childhood as the tests are not suitable for most very young children. So again access to the expensive tests is uneven at best and non-existent for large parts of New Zealand. Then the issue of actually qualifying for getting the equipment: near-impossible.
So if you're wealthy, fine. If not, tough.
I have learned all this in the last two months as, after a decade of attempting to resolve our son’s hearing difficulties, we may finally be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.
I’m furious about the profound difficulties he has needlessly faced because “some audiologists do not believe in APD”.
Rage; self-blame because I have not found this sooner among other feelings; a maelstrom of emotions overwhelmed me about six weeks ago when suddenly, through a stroke of good fortune, he and I were started to be taken seriously. This was right about the day of Sacha’s first Access blog, and I wept as I read the words that described so perfectly how my young man has been dismissed, and that described the effects on him.
This tale is only beginning, and I plan to write more as I gain more understanding.
Thanks everyone, for your contributions to Access, to Sacha, and to Russell. It’s helping us find a better place in the world.
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Count me as a mal-content. Seems the world has gone to hell in a handbasket when National Radio is being rebored.
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That's amazing Jai and Jimmy. Huge congratulations to you both.
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Speaker: The problem of “horror tenants”…, in reply to b.douglas,
Tenants' Protection Association from Christchurch is the go-to. The website www.tpa.org.nz has huge amounts of information.
TPA has been advocating for the rental WOF for many years.
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Great post. The Twitbot app explains why when I searched Kenyan trends for location details (a friend lives in Kenya) the tweets were endlessly repetitive.
As an aside, some tweets mentioned that 'the white widow' was seen nearby very recently -- a fine trigger for hysterical UK red-tops' coverage.
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Another circularity: a Chapman family has been established for many years near Methven at Inverary Station.
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Speaker: The problem of “horror tenants”…, in reply to Lilith __,
Thanks Lilith. I would have been rude.